Waikato Hospital cardiothoracic nurse and surgical assistants Kelsey Abercrombie, Jacque Roberts, and Georgia Miller. Photo: RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod
Fewer scars for Waitako heart bypass surgery patients
People needing heart bypass surgery in Waikato are leaving hospital with fewer scars, thanks to a specially trained nurse team.
Waikato was the only region in the country where the new procedure was available both in the public and private hospitals.
Waikato Hospital cardiothoracic nurse and surgical assistant Kelsey Abercrombie said the traditional way of taking the vein involved a long cut down the leg to remove the great saphenous vein for use in fixing the heart.
She said taking veins through open incisions came at a physical cost for many patients.
"These long cuts were often very sore and painful for patients and that's slowed their mobilising after surgery," she said.
Veins could also be taken from the arm and chest. When Ross Alexander needed to have heart bypass surgery five years ago, he came out of Waikato hospital with some impressive scars.
"I tell little kids I've been attacked by a shark, on my leg, and then I show them my arm and say that's where I was fighting him off," he joked.
Alexander was stoic about the long scars.
"I don't mind being scarred if I'm alive," he said, though he recognised that it could be different for others.
He said any new development in surgery was fantastic news.
Two of the three dedicated Waikato cardiothoracic surgical nurses received a grant from Waikato Heart Trust and travelled to New York's Stony Brook University Hospital in 2023 to observe endoscopic vein harvesting.
This is a procedure where instead of a long cut down the leg, keyhole surgery is used to access and remove the leg vein.
Waikato is the only region in the country where the new procedure is available both in public and private hospitals. Photo: Supplied/ Waikato Hospital
Jacque Roberts said the research trip was one of the most amazing experiences she has had as a nurse.
"To go over to a hospital that does this routinely for everybody and just see how patients were post-operatively getting up, walking, very little pain when we talked to them, and just realising we would like to bring this to New Zealand," she said.
Six months of training with a visiting specialist from Australia followed and the procedure was used on the first Waikato patient on 13 May, 2024.
So far 266 patients had benefited from keyhole vein harvesting at the hospital and over 90 percent of Waikato patients needing heart bypass surgery had been able to have the keyhole procedure.
Abercrombie said patients had seen many benefits.
"Patients have far less pain, they are up moving around much quicker and once the scar has healed it is hardly detectable," she said.
Georgia Miller is the third dedicated cardiothoracic surgical nurse at Waikato Hospital. She was on maternity leave when the new surgery was introduced.
"When I came back the girls had done probably a good six-months of the endoscopic harvesting, so when I came along, I had a steep learning curve," she said.
But Roberts and Abercrombie were able to train her.
"That was incredible for me," she said.
Nurse-led endoscopic vein harvesting had been the gold standard for heart bypass surgery overseas for many years, though its availability was limited in New Zealand.
The Waikato team said it could help change that.
"We've gone over this steep learning curve and have really honed in on our micro-dexterity skills that it takes to harvest the vein this way, and we would be more then willing to help other centres to provide this kind of care to patients in New Zealand," Abercrombie said.
Waikato's private hospital, Braemer, was now also offering endoscopic vein harvesting, becoming the first private hospital in the country to integrate it into its heart bypass surgery.
"It's a complete game-changer for our patients," said cardiothoracic surgeon David McCormack, a Braemar specialist from the Heart Surgeon Group.
"When patients need bypass grafts, they're most often taken from veins in the leg, but this area can often be the most troublesome to heal from. EVH changes all of that."
For those in Waikato facing the prospect of heart bypass surgery, this advancement aimed to offer hope for a less traumatic, more comfortable surgical experience with better outcomes.
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